Women and girls are dying around the world because of abusive partners denying them safe contraception Shutterstock Photo

By John Dunne – July 10, 2017

Thousands of women and girls are dying around the world because of abusive partners denying them safe contraception and abortions, a report reveals today.

Millions are being raped and forced to have multiple pregnancies, according to the research by ActionAid ahead of a summit on family planning in London. The charity helps poor women and girls across the world.

UNITED NATIONS, July 13, 2017 (IPS)- More than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a newreportreleased by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Although significant progress to ensure access to drinking water has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure its quality—deemed free from pollutants and safe for drinking.

“Clean water and sanitation is central to other outcomes, for example, nutrition among children. While many countries like India have made it a top priority, many others haven’t been able to emphasise the issue yet,” Sanjay Wijesekera, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, told IPS.

“Given the persistence of all forms of violence against women including femicide, fragmented legislative response and the serious lack of comparable data on femicide at a global, regional, and national level, I have called for the establishment of a ‘Femicide watch’ that would contribute to prevention of such violence.” – Dr. Dubravka Šimonović

Preface

Unless there is accurate and comparable data collection on a given crime, there will be no proper understanding of it and no effective strategy with which to combat it.

2017 FAMILY PLANNING SUMMIT - http://summit2017.familyplanning2020.org/ - On July 11, policymakers, donors, and advocates from around the world are gathering at the Family Planning Summit in London, UK, to discuss efforts to reach our Family Planning 2020 goals and ensure that more women and girls around the world are able to plan their families and their futures.

March 7, 2017 - The peoples of the world, in particular in the global south, have been facing increasing levels of violence in different forms, which directly or indirectly have an important bearing on the realization of their human right to adequate food and nutrition (RTFN – Global Network for the Right to Food & Nutrition), and related rights.

The vast majority of violations of the RTFN are associated with acts of commission and omission of State authorities and with abuses and crimes carried out by transnational corporations (TNCs) and other business enterprises. These acts of violence take a variety of different forms: land grabbing, forced evictions, child marriage and gender-based violence, bonded labor, abusive utilization of agrochemicals by agribusiness with detrimental consequences to health and the environment, criminalization of social movement leaders and human rights defenders, ocean and fisheries grabbing, abusive marketing of junk food, and the promotion of climate change.

Date : 05 July 2017 - Gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This thematic spotlight is part of a series showcasing where women and girls stand against select SDG targets and was produced in support of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at UN Headquarters in New York from 10–19 July, 2017.

Ongoing measles outbreaks in the WHO European Region have caused 35 deaths in the past 12 months. The most recent fatality was a 6-year-old boy in Italy, where over 3300 measles cases and 2 deaths have occurred since June 2016. Several other countries have also reported outbreaks; according to national public health authorities, these have caused 31 deaths in Romania, 1 death in Germany and another in Portugal.

“Every death or disability caused by this vaccine-preventable disease is an unacceptable tragedy,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “We are very concerned that although a safe, effective and affordable vaccine is available, measles remains a leading cause of death among children worldwide, and unfortunately Europe is not spared. Working closely with health authorities in all European affected countries is our priority to control the outbreaks and maintain high vaccination coverage for all sections of the population.”

Health authorities from 7 Member States came together for an informal technical consultation on human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization on 27 June 2017 in Copenhagen, Denmark. WHO/Europe organized the meeting to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience among HPV immunization programmes.

A successful start in the battle against cervical cancer

HPV is a largely sexually transmitted virus responsible for a range of diseases, including cervical cancer and genital warts. So far, 28 countries in the WHO European Region have added the HPV vaccine to their routine immunization schedules and 3 additional countries – Armenia, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova – plan to do so this year.

7 July 2017 – Data from 77 countries show that antibiotic resistance is making gonorrhoea – a common sexually-transmitted infection – more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to treat. Some countries – particularly high-income ones, where surveillance is best – are finding cases of the infection that are untreatable by all known antibiotics. These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg, as gonorrhoea is more common in lower-income countries.